As slow as possible

'… the actual dialectical challenge here is whether you, as an asker of a question, are then capable of subjecting yourself to the answer you find.'

'Rousseau's sovereign assemblies are neither spaces of robust public deliberation and debate on matters of common concern, nor are they sites for the aggregation of individual preferences; they are not raucous public meetings dominated by popular orators, nor are they occasions of plebiscitary acclamation. Rousseau's sovereign assemblies have been thought by some to echo the collective assemblies of the ancient world, and Rousseau himself continually turns to Roman examples to orient his reader, but they have little precedent in political theory's previous descriptions of the role and function of popular assembly in political life. The enigma or "oddness" of Rousseau's sovereign assemblies is based first and foremost in the fact that they are envisioned as not only solemn but largely silent; that is, as spaces not of ratio-critical deliberation or passionate public oratory, so much as of the "mute eloquence" of a largely silent and absorbed collective.'

'… after one has long imposed silence on it, to recall it is not the business of a moment.'

Duncan Law on traditional and critical theory

A downpour.

Jason Read on working together

'Losers love company, though…'

'The difference is that today's child grows up in a culture surrounded by adults who read fluently.'